The Serpopard
by PsychicDetective
Summary: Years after the final battle of Hogwarts, Harry, after leaving the British Isles behind, once again finds himself in an incredibly dangerous situation. while galvinating about in his animagus form, accidentally finds himself adopted by Artemis and Her Hunters! Now, he must keep his cover, lest he be discovered and killed. (Now looking for Beta, PM me if you're interested).
1. Chapter 1

To say Harry was surprised was an understatement. It had been 10 years since the Hogwarts Final War, and he finally moved on. Both physically and mentally. The deaths of his friends and family had weighed heavily on his mind, causing him to fall into a deep depression. Neither Hermione nor Ron had been able to dig him out, much less Ginny. Ron, in his typical fashion, had left him, using his newfound fame to enter his beloved Chudley Cannons instantly, bypassing both the necessary interview and the quidditch tryouts. Hermione had been conscripted into the unspeakables and promptly disappeared from his life, immersing herself into the magical powers of love. She had chosen this subject due to the words of Dumbledore, and how harry had used it to defeat the worst British Dark Lord in 5 centuries. After a year of minimal contact, she had moved to France, arguing that the pursuit of knowledge preceded everything else. She then argued that they would keep in touch, obviously omitting the fact that even when she had been living next to him they had practically stopped talking, ash she spent all of her time researching.

He had dated Ginny for 4 years before that died off. It had been both a mix of abrupt and a long time coming. After the final battle, they had gotten together for a long steaming reunion, and they had kind of gravitated towards one another. They had been going great for the first year, but soon the discrepancies started acting out. Once the initial fad of defeating voldemort ran out, Harry was content on fading into the background, satisfied that unless something extraordinary happened, he'd probably not become the main attraction of everything. Sure, people would always recognize him, but hopefully there would be no new derogatory articles suspecting him of becoming a dark lord, or that he had a massive harem with 4 veelas and a draconian woman of all things. Ginny meanwhile, definitely was not content. Once the Daily Prophet stopped posting daily articles on their behalf, she started going out more and more, forcing Harry along. She started attending pureblood parties, making waves upon waves on their society, trying to bring up the attention surrounding them. She truly was in love with both fame and the Boy who lived, certainly not Harry.

Their relationship quickly deteriorated in an alarming degree, and suddenly exploded in a sudden explosion the night before their fourth anniversary. Harry had taken to visiting the hogwarts Library in his spare time, making up for both his horrible teachers (really? Lockhart? I mean, come on dumbledore!) and his own horrible decisions (divination?), the hogwarts war had made things painfully obvious as to how well prepared he actually was in terms of both power, and knowledge. Harry had had to stand aside and watch as his teachers and some of with friends fortified and warded the castle. He had had to watch as both flitwick and Mcgonagall animated the metal armours well enough that they actually managed to fight off acromantulas. He then watched as he struggled to fend off death eaters while helpless as his friends fell next to him. All to end with an expelliarmus. Once the battle was over, and he saw his friends grieving, as he felt his own tears fall, gently covering tonks and fred with a blanket. And through all of this, he reviewed his actions on the battlefield. He had been useless in the preparation for the battle. Mostly useless during the battle itself, the only one he had fought was voldemort, and it hadn't been a fair battle. He had somehow invoked an effect similar to priori incantatem with his own expelliarmus, killing voldemort in the process. Truth to be told, after cutting up his own soul som many times, it was surprising he didn't die due to tripping on his own feet, his own soul so violated it was barely clinging to his body. He was completely useless after the battle too. Despite his own experiences in the medical wing, he had not been able to help the incredible dark wounds all his fellow classmates supported.

Thus, after he settled down from the war, he took to visiting the Hogwarts library. Mcgonagall had given him unlimited access to both the wards and the restricted section of the library. Furthermore, using the room of requirement, he could further his own studies. In fact, it was actually due to this masterpiece of magical engineering that he managed to complete both his studies and a masters in the ICW's "The Magyks Of Battleurgy", a comprehensive course on everything encompassing warfare. This included a touch of History of Magic, where they studied the most dangerous dark lords, which, surprising Harry, included Grindelwald and not Voldemort (because according to the ICW, Voldemort was more of a rebel against his own particular government, and posed no threat to the world as a whole, unlike Grindelwald, who managed to conquer most of Europe), warfare tactics, here they studied both ancient mythological battles, which he was surprised actually took place such as the battle of Troy, as well as more modern tactics employed by muggles. Furthermore, it trained them as battle medics, teaching them how to cauterise wounds, remove dark curses, and quickly, and efficiently heal someone enough to keep them operable with the minimal amount of magical energy. The subject of wards were studied almost religiously, they invited in both goblins and dwarves, using them as assistant teachers. It also took intensive studies into both what the british called Light, and Dark magics. There, it was simply called Attack Magyk, in fact, it completely opened his eyes. What was the difference between using wingardium leviosa to drop a boulder on someone versus a rotting course that killed them all the same? The difference was actually made pretty obvious to him once they started. A boulder could miss and crush someone's hand, versus a rotting curse that hit the hand still managed to kill the victim unless treated immediately.

In fact, what the british called light magic was mostly used as distractions, for example, a stupefy's bright red spell hiding the near invisible muscle deteriorating curse that followed, or a lumos maxima that blinded the opponent, leaving them open for a quick bone smashing curse straight to the chest. In fact, the only curses the ICW considered to be unforgivable were the Avada Kedavra, a curse that naturally slowly deteriorated your mental capacity, which actually explained how Voldemort and some of his more fanatical followers such as bellatrix lestrange, insane woman all around, or Malfoy, who in their right mind thought it a wise idea to unleash a powerful dark artifact on a school full of children?, became after decades of work. The curcio was also an unforgivable, as the pain the victim felt equated to pleasure upon the caster. The more pain the victim felt, the better the caster, all around a horrible curse. The imperio was actively used in battle scenarios, and encouraged to be used on animals in their own day to day lives, so as to not be caught unawares by the 'extra' mind once used in battles. The final test on this curse was one of the hardests, at least for most people, as they brought in a full blooded Veela, and they then had to throw off the curse while also fielding off their allure. Completely throwing it off constituted as a 100% pass, as well as an automatic grant on using the curse. Throwing it enough to tell someone they were imperioused was a pass, but those who passed that way still had to take a course on how to cast it. He had been one of the few that threw it off in under 5 minutes.

It had taken him a bit of time to adapt to the curriculum, and even more time to find the correct way to use the room of requirement, but once he had adapted, there was no stopping him. Using a time dilation feature he had discovered, he immersed himself in the room, time passing at a 1:10 ratio (meaning if 10 hours passed within the room, only 1 would pass in outside) There, he managed to complete the necessary 6 years in half the time, using the mannequins conjured by the room on hard mode to practice, as well as memories of his own battles, dodging the spells there as if they were real. The result was an unprecedentedly quick graduation. From there he took a job as an ICW Hitwizard, a fact that actually resparked both his own fame in Britain (it was incredibly difficult to enter the ICW Hit wizards) and what he had realized was a dwindling romance with Ginny. So, after touring multiple countries and fighting evil dark and light Lords (yes, there were evil light lords, as well as nice dark lord). He was resigned to returning home to Ginny, wondering if she would be as dismissive as he had slowly come to expect of her. Sure, he may have focused just a tad too much on his job and studies, but that was no excuse to ditch their dates midway on the few days he could visit. Thus, he slowly meandered home, making up his mind to give his relationship another chance. He went to muggle london and bought a large bouquet of flowers, intent on surprising Ginny. She thought he arrived tomorrow.

He frowned a bit upon reaching Grimmauld Place, the wards were closed to him. He weaved through them, a task easy enough for him as he was both experienced in wards and was keyed in. Quickly taking out his old Holly wand while palming the deathstick in his other hand, he slowly paced down the cobblestone path, silencing his feet and erasing his scent. He stalked down the corridors, using all of his ingrained knowledge to its full extent, silencing the door hinges as well as the steps, spreading his magical awareness as a sort of sonar. He stopped at a guest room, registering two presences within, both on pressed to the right of the door. Maybe some kind of ambush? Waiting for him to open the door only to attack him? He thought of other scenarios, maybe Ginny invited guests? No, she would've told him. Determining his previous hypothesis to be the most probably, he quickly went to the master bedroom, and, using a spell he found in the room of requirement when looking for interesting and useful combat related spells, he became immaterial, phasing through the wall, only to stop in shock, his wands clattering to the ground. The two presences instantly separated, the womans legs unhooking from the man's waist, all while her hands fumbled at pulling her dress down. Meanwhile, the man quickly bent down pulling up his pants, all while Harry slowly registered what his mind refused to process.

The two people quickly turned around, Ginny's face slowly turning red as her eyes watered, all while Dean refused to meet his eyes, his head hung a bit in shame.

"H-Harry…. I-i-it's not what it looks like! I Swear!" Ginny cried, hiding her own face with her hands. Harry stayed silent, processing this new information, his Avada Kedavra eyes shining more brightly than ever, each eye glowing with power. His magic fluttered about him, causing him to unconsciously levitate a few of the smaller objects around him. Soon, the two adulterers before him shivered, feeling the mounting pressure as his aura oppressed their own. Ginny slowly cried. "I-I'm sorry!It was a one time thing!I promise, it meant nothing!"

"Get out" it was barely a whisper, yet Ginny recoiled as if slapped. "P-please Harry!"

"I know we were having problems Ginny. But this is unforgivable. Congratulations, you've killed our relationship. Now get out" Harry stated, his magic whipping about the room. By now Dean was sweating. The wards, as if responding to their masters orders started bearing down on them, the pressure slowly becoming insurmountable. Harry, once again noticing Dean, ejected him from the ward scheme, and watched him get violently ejected from the premise, leaving only a bloodstain as a memento (the wards were quite vicious, they were set up by the blacks after all). Ginny ogled at the blood, and then looked back at Harry fearfully.

"For the good memories we once had, now all tinged by your betrayal, I will let leave peacefully. Tiffy!" Harry shouted, and with a small pop a relatively nice looking house elf appeared, bawling about how she hadn't been able to tell her master what her mistress was doing, all because her mistress forbade her. After reassuring Tiffy she was still a good elf and he wouldn't be freeing her, he ordered her to pack up ginny's things and get her out within the next minute. Ginny by now had realized the effect of her actions. Sure, they had had their share of problems, but it was salvageable. Not anymore. She had thrown it all away, her future, the quality of life she was living, any possible children they may have had, all for a night with Dean. Merlin, what had she done?! As these thoughts ran through her mind, Tiffy finished packing and took her hand, looking at Harry for his next order.

"Harry, I-I" She was cut off suddenly as Harry nodded and her perspective changed from the inside of their-Now Harry's house to the edge of the burrow. Tiffy released her hand and went to comfort her dear master, inwardly seething at the mean ugly woman her master had been with before. Harry meanwhile, looked around the house, noticing that all of a sudden it felt completely foreign to him. He looked out of the window, staring into muggle london, and suddenly realised something. He had nothing keeping him here anymore. Andromeda and Teddy had left for france some time ago, as that country was more acceptant of werewolf offspring. Hermione had also left to the romance capital, besides, they weren't exactly talking anymore. Ron was a right and upper prat, galvinating this way and that. Ginny, his only tie to this place, was cheating on him. The only things that remained here were actually bad memories. Maybe he could find some new friends? Build better memories?

No….

The bad ones were incredibly horrible, filled with deaths and loss,they would taint anything they came in contact to. This place would taint anything it came in contact with. He had to leave this place. Thinking this, he summoned his bare necessities into his bottomless pouch, and quickly turned a cup into portkey, which deposited him into South Africa, near the south african school of Magic, a place known for its animagus teachings.

It was finally time to honor Sirius's legacy.

Years after the final battle of Hogwarts, Harry, after leaving the British Isles behind, once again finds himself in an incredibly dangerous situation. while galvinating about in his animagus form, accidentally finds himself adopted by Artemis and Her Hunters! Now, he must keep his cover, lest he be discovered and killed.


	2. Chapter 2

Learning to be an animagus was absolutely horrible. In fact, it was comparable to the Occlumency lessons with Snape. For the first month, he had to have someone (thankfully ministry approved) shift through his mind, somehow both managing to make him feel both violated, and utterly utterly so angry. The man who looked through his memories always ended the session with a pitiful look, a look that always managed to anger him. He didn't want to be pitied, he didn't want to be anything. Furthermore, after the second month, He was assigned to look throughout his own mindscape and accept all of his own flaws and insecurities, an act that usually put out most of the animagi-hopefuls, it was extremely hard to accept you were stupid, or that they were arrogant afterall.

There, they realized that surprise surprise, having a voldemort horcrux in his head for 17 years caused consequences whose ramifications in his mind actually created a new study for the mind specialists. The result? He had two sets of memories within his own mind, as well as two whole different mindsets, ones he could be taught to switch between. Thankfully, his personality remained the same, as thanks to his mothers sacrifice the memories weren't ingrained into his subconscious, meaning that if he went into what he deigned to be the 'voldemort mode', he'd still be Harry, just with a whole different outlook on life.

The first time he switched mindsets occurred on the third month of his animagus studies. He had been meditating, searching his mindscape for his inner animal, when he came across a large manor, one he felt looked familiar. It was large and dilapidated, weeds growing all over the grounds. The large spiraling towers seemed to be crumbling, some of their windows boarded up and others missing the glass. When he walked inside his footsteps caused clouds of dust to rise, soon enough causing him to cough. He looked around, wondering what the hell this was doing in his mindscape. The furniture here was covered by the typical white sheets, the scarce light within the house illuminating the dust particles floating in the air. He walked across

The main hall, looking at the arched ceiling in wonder, it looked quite a bit like Hogwarts great hall actually, except devoid of the 4 long tables. Taking a side corridor, he entered the first door he saw, entering an extremely large library. The bookshelves disappeared into the ceiling, their ends not visible, fading into the darkness. The books themselves were all the same, each one an old leather book, the corners bound together with a metal clasp. He picked out a random book, looking at the title before he dropped it in shock, he had recognized the cover, recognized the title. This was the book that had caused him so many problems his second year, the book responsible for the Chamber of Secrets, this book was Tom Riddle's Diary.

Carefully picking it up, he once again picked it up, now actually reading the title, discovering a few differences between the two iconic books. For one, this one read "Tom Riddle's Charms Year 1 Book." curiously opening the book, he was suddenly assaulted with visions of himself walking down a corridor, and surprised himself as he caught his reflection of a window, he was young again, but not himself, dark brown eyes peering back at him instead of their vibrant green. He remembered himself as a young boy entering a classroom, meeting a teacher his own height and using his new yew and phoenix core wand to levitate a small parchment and suddenly lighting it on fire, all while using his other hand to levitate the parchment of his deskmate Lestrange, earning them 20 points for slytherin. He remembered opening his own charms book, immersing himself into the almost fictitious facts, teaching him how to break the rules of physics, showing him just how much better he was than the others in the orphanage. He remembered exiting the class, excited about how good he had been. HE remembered studying ahead, learning the whole curriculum before the christmas holidays, and using the remaining time to study ahead.

He emerged from his visions gasping loudly,looking around to find himself once again in the library, one he could now say with certainty contained the memories of tom riddle up to the time he attacked James and lily potter. Curious, he walked further into the library, picking up and depositing the books as he went along.

"Tom Riddle's Owl Examinations"

"Tom Riddle's Work at Borgin and Burkes"

"Tom Riddle's Rituals"

Quickly he opened up that one, bracing himself for the onslaught of what Harry expected could only be some of the most horrible rituals in existence if it made him into the snake monster Voldemort had become in his final memories assaulted his eyes, and he saw himself as a teenager reading up on a relatively harmless ritual, at least when compared to the others he had conducted, that, with the sacrifice of an animal and a muggle, would grant him that particular animals most enhanced instincts. An example would be how he sacrificed an owl and a random muggle he found, and he gained the night sight of one, allowing him to see perfectly in the night. It was through these memories that Harry actually gained a better insight on Voldemort than Dumbledore's memories ever could teach him. He begrudgingly felt his respect for Voldemort rising as he watched, despite all of the horrible things Voldemort had done, Harry had to admit that he had gone farther than anyone ever before in the road to perfeccion. He had sacrificed everything from a skipper butterfly (To gain a better reaction time) to actually using Einstein in a ritual, gaining his scientific outlook and knowledge of the universe.

Throughout the following weeks he slowly assimilated the rest of the memories, both reinforcing some of his own Attack Magyks (He learned a lot more Dark magic than he was sure some of the teachers knew, such as an actual torture spell that killed the victim by removing 0.5 centimeters of whatever was touching the air at the time. The pain was apparently higher than that of the cruciatus once the nerves started being affected, however, it wasn't as common, as it killed the victim, and wasn't as fast as some other spells).

As time flows slower within the mental space, he managed to relive most of Voldemort's life within only a month, meeting the expected time limit set by his examiner. Surprisingly, he managed to assimilate both his own flaws and Voldemort's, resulting in the Two different mindsets. Then, it was finally time to start his animagus shifting. The initial step was to stick a mandrake leaf below his tongue for a whole month, only removing it for one hour every day to eat breakfast. Then, he had to consume a potion brewed by a virgin on the full moon (The school provided the potion, he only had to provide his blood), after which he had to immediately enter a meditative trance to find his inner animal, and try to assimilate it into his mindscape. According to both his teacher and the books on the process, this event was different for everyone depending on who you were as an animal. For example, if you were a wolf, to assimilate you apparently had to become part of its pack, or if you were a bird you'd have to feed and tame it. Animals that weren't predators however, were usually easier to subdue and assimilate (Unless they were prideful animals such as deer or cats). And thus, Harry wondered around his mindscape, making small changes around the way. The effects of the potion though, soon became noticeable as clouds started forming above the Hogwarts and Riddle Manor, revolving around each other and creating a beautiful purple, blue and red visage. Below, in the eye of the circle the clouds formed, he saw his animal.

It was large, around the size of a car, with green and yellow highlights, the muscles rippled below the reddish skin, razor sharp black claws the size of knives scratching the cobble street it was on. It had clearer discolored spots dotting its skin, and a long neck it was using to look around, folding it this way and that, its maw dripping with saliva, intelligent avada kedavra green eyes analyzing its new surroundings. A snake tongue flicked out of its jaw, seemingly both tasting the air for heat and scent and licking its jaw. As harry walked slowly and carefully towards it, the animal sharply turned its face towards him, and harry noticed that unlike what he had previously thought, the animal didn't actually have skin, but rather incredibly small scales that seemed like skin at first glance. The animal, its name unknown to Harry cocked its head, its tongue slowly slipping out, the green eyes locking onto Harry's.

The Animal tensed suddenly, its green highlights glowing with power, the long streak below its neck changing between green and yellow intermittently. The saliva started slowly dripping between its fangs, hissing as it touched the floor below, corroding it. The animal crouched, before suddenly pouncing onto Harry, who by then had also crouched wearily, eyeing the animal with distrust. Harry quickly whipped out both wands, firing a bone breaker with one while the deathstick focused on transfiguring the surroundings into walls he threw himself behind. The bone breaker barely fazed the animal, only making it take one step back, before it continued, barreling into the steel wall harry had made. The wall shook beneath the animal, whose claws were ripping into it. Harry then took in what he knew of the animal. It was large and strong, it had a long neck capable of a vast range of movement, but he had made the wall tall and wide enough that he didn't need to worry about the head right now. It had strong venomous or acidic saliva/poison that would definitively maim or kill, if the cobblestone was any indication. Furthermore, if the sound of the claws on steel was one that could be used as a base, the claws themselves were sharp too, basically, it wasn't an animal he wanted to fight close quarters with.

Noticing this, he immediately turned the floor beneath the animal to ice, and sent a wide banisher to it, throwing it far away onto a wall. He then sent a wide array of bone breakers, rotting curses and sectumsempras. The bone breakers made it fumble back, but the scales on the animal seemed to be resistant to magic, making the relatively weaker bone breakers useless. The rotting curses did manage to hurt the animal, making the area the scales were in darken and fall off, yet that seemed to be more of a bruise than an actual wound. The sectumsempra cracked the scales but did little else to the animal, except for one, that managed to hit in the exact same spot a rotting curse had hit before, erising a loud wail from the animal. Now enraged, it stood up, extending its claws and digging into the ice, using them to propel itself forward. The neck extended quickly and rapidly, like a snake, about to strike. Harry ducked and rolled, sending piercing hexes at its soft underbelly, eliciting more whimpers from the now wounded animal. It in turn sent its tail at him, whacking him with its heavy appendage in the back, ramming him into the previously transfigured wall. Whinded, harry hesitated a moment to gather his thoughts, a moment that proved fatal, as his opponent used this time to lacerate him with its claws. Wounded deeply, harry retaliated with a dark fire whip, burning the animal. HUrt and tired harry let his inhibitions go, and with a shout of fiendfyre pointed his wand at the animals flank, carefully dodging the bite of animal, which used its long neck to extend its strike zone.

The long horses and bears of fire eate up the animals flank, burrowing into the scales, actually causing it to scream in pain. Quickly ending the spell before it overpower him, harry looked at the newly charred body of ihs animagus form. Suddenly enveloped in a blinding white light, the animal slowly walked over to harry, and bent its long neck,bowing in a manner reminiscent of Hippogriffs, before slowly bumping its head into Harry's chest, before exploding particles of white light, each one being absorbed into harry, who was suddenly now alone as the animal disappeared. Looking around the aftermath of the fight, Harry concentrated, turning everything back to the way it was before leaving his mindscape spotless. Done with the assigned task, he quickly left, opening his eyes before looking around wildly, this was not where he had entered his occlumency exercise, this was the medical bay. A nurse hurried over, her monitoring charm informing her that he had 'woken' up. Quickly patting himself down, he felt a bandage across his chest, and, after asking what was wrong, was informed that the wound his own animal had inflicted during the exercise had appeared in his own body, leaving four large slashes on his chest. Apparently that was another reason most people didn't want to risk the animagus transformation. That, and the final step, one he would take once he had been healed, the actual transformation.

As his transformation created appendages his own body didn't physically have (the tail), he had to take another course on these (this time it was taught by actual animagi who had these appendages, as well as transfiguration masters) In this case, he had to take 2 extra courses in addition to the transformation one. The first for a tail, where the teacher transfigured him into a monkey, as they had comprehensive tails, one he had to learn how to control. In the second class, he was transfigured into a snake, where he learned how to 'taste the air'. The first time he had done so almost gave him a seizure, the many different tastes clouding his mind. He could taste the air around him, informing him of the excitement the teacher was feeling, as well as the residual sweat and apprehension from the students that had used the classroom before. He tasted the convection currents in the classroom, bringing in scents from outside the room. It was both wonderful, and frightening.

The process to become an animagus was fraught with dangers, both psychological, were they had to affront their own fears, sins, and trepidations, and physical, were he had to physically fight against his animal. However, the most dangerous process by far was the mental aspect of the personal transfiguration, one could lose himself within the animal, leaving them unable to turn back into a human. If done perfectly, there was no problems, but the most normal thing was that some animal traits passed onto the human form, for example, Sirius's doglike tendencies, or Mcgonagall's insistence on grooming. Harry thankfully, due to both the influence of Voldemort and his own training for the imperius, was very assured of his own self, allowing him to turn into his animal with little problems, and the only resultant trait he recognised as having passed over once he was complete was a fiercely loyal mindset towards his mate, whoever that may be (here harry acutely felt a large sense of loss. Apparently his animal was large familial, something that fitted Harry perfectly, he had always wanted a large family).

Once he finished the transformation, he took to running around the savannah, leaving large paw imprints on the vast plains, enjoying the wind brushing his scales. He registered his form into the South African Magical Ministry, learning that it was in fact a Serpopard, a semi-magical animal native to the egyptian sahara and mesopotamian area. It was Semi-magical in the sense that could actually live with the muggles as it didn't really have any magical abilities (No spitting fires or turning invisible), but was still considered magical due to its nature and composition. It was a very distant cousin of a Greek chimera, and was always a mashup between a snake and a leopard. They were nearly extinct nowadays, kept only within preservation centers, but long ago they were a lot more prevalent, with egyptians and the mesopotamians offering virgin sacrifices (apparently like unicorns, Serpopards trusted them implicitly) to them. The serpopards never ate them, instead thinking they were lost in the desert and took them to other settlements, yet the villagers never knew this, thinking instead that they were eaten. Their ground bones was used in extremely rare potions, for example in the Polysalve potion, a variant of polyjuice that caused permanent changes within the user. If for example it was added on the eyebrows, they would be replaced by the eyebrows of the persons whose DNA was added, quite useful for Magical Models, thus they were almost hunted to extinction. Furthermore, their venom, while not as deadly as a Basilisks, was an extreme paralytic, similar to morphine. Additionally, their venom could also be used in a potion that, once created, could knock out even a dragon once ingested. All in all, an extremely good animal.

Since then, Harry had taken to travelling to large expansions of nature running around freely, enjoying his freedom from his studies, from hateful aunts and uncles, from meddling headmasters as well as the bipolar opinions and expectations of the sheep populace, as well as his responsibilities in the war. Finally, he was free. It was while he was running through the Grand Canyon in america that he met what he now considered his family, The Hunters of Artemis. He had been jumping between the streams of the diverging river when he came across a group of girls fighting off what seemed to be large Grimms. One of them was shouting orders at the others, trying to make up for their lack of fighting superiority. They were shooting arrows at them, but the grimms were shrugging them off, the silver streaks doing nothing against their matted fur. The teenager in charge seemed to have more luck than the other girls, her arrows hitting vital points in the dogs, causing them to burst into poofs of golden dust. Harry couldn't fight the sudden surge of desire to protect them, and threw himself into the fray of the battle, his claws ripping the Grimms into shreds, his mouth clamping around the necks of the dogs necks, soon coughing up gold powder. The young girls meanwhile, started startled at him surprised a monster (to them) would help them out against other monsters. Harry, meanwhile, helped out the older girl, who by now was muttering something about a horrible first experience for the girls as well as a weird monster helping them out. She was shooting arrow after arrow, each one hitting the joints of the dogs causing them to trip and stumble straight into his path, allowing him to kill the Grimms quickly.

Once all of the grims were turned to dust, he quickly sat down in his haunches, lowering his head down to the ground. He thought of transforming back into his human form, but he didn't want to startle them, so he remained in his Serpopard form, blinking cutely at them. The older teenager signalled for all of the girls to fall back, and placed an arrow onto her drawstring, cautiously approaching him. She walked right next to him, more confident once he didn't attack her. She carefully started rubbing the hair that went along his spine, surprising both himself and her once he let out a deep pur.

A loud howl cut through the embarrassing moment, startling both of them as the looked around for the source. Harry's tongue snaked out tasting the air for any anomalies, only to snap back inside, the smell of fire, sulphur and brimstone coming from the south practically overpowering everything else. He whined aloud, using his head to point towards the direction the smell was coming from. The girl seemed to understand, quickly gathering her little group of girls and leeding them away, with harry following up on the rear. They ran through the canyon, Harry slowing down a tad so that they could keep up with him. Surprisingly, He only had to do so a little, as once they started running, a silver hue seemed to seep from their skin, enshrouding them in a halo of light, and they suddenly accelerated greatly, leaving harry behind a short while before he gathered his thoughts, running at full speed to catch up.

He continued flicking his tongue out, hissing his displeasure, and whining towards the extremely fast blurs, trying to tell them the urgency of the situation, as the smell of the Grimms was catching up to them. There was one particular source that was vastly ahead of the others, almost parallel to them, it was on a high rise, when suddenly he detected it jumping towards them from the flank. Harry quickly accelerated, jumping towards the leaping grimm, intercepting it mid flight, his front legs smashing into the ribs of the large grim, his claws digging into the dogs flesh, his long neck snapping forward, his neck muscles contracting and pushing his head right up to the massive dogs neck, allowing his jaws to clamp down hard, ripping out the dogs jugular, causing it to erupt into gold dust. He landed with a small stumble, not used to using this form for combat. The girls continued running, some of them sending him thankful looks. The older girl suddenly stopped running, putting her hands together as if in prayer, all while her own silvery hue started brightening, covering a large amount of the small canyon they had run into. By now, the sulphur and brimstone scent was right behind them, and turning around Harry saw the truth of the statement, seeing as a large pack of Grimms coming at them from the entrance of canyon.

By now the older girl had stopped praying and joined him in the back, telling the girls to run ahead to their camp, wherever that was, and get their lady for help. The two of them shared a glance, a kind of understanding passing between them, before they turned around to stare at the hounds on their feet, bracing themselves for the fight that would inevitably follow. Harry now wondered if he should turn back into a human, but decided not to, as not only would this be the perfect practice for fighting in this form, but in his human form, the fight in his human form would end too quickly, as a firewhip would certainly burn their fur and kill them all, and, unlike in his earlier years, or mayhaps due to them, he was now an adrenaline junkie. Thus, he raised his hackles and crouched down low, teach bared so as to intimidate a few of the weaker pray. The two sides faced off, each side readying themselves to fight for their lives, when as if hearing an imaginary signal only they could hear, both sides surged forwards, the Grims snarling and frothing, their red eyes glowing in the slowly dying light, their howls and growls tainting the dusk with their sound. The girl had gotten rid of her bow and instead unsheathed two bowie knives, their edges glinting as they tried to resheath themselves in the flesh of their enemies. Harry meanwhile snarled and growled along with the best of the Grimms, his animal instincts taking over against all of his wishes, his claws slashing across his enemies, fangs coated with his paralytic poison burying themselves into the opposing party.

The girl and him fought as if possessed, ducking and weaving between the enemies in tandem, supporting each others blind spots, fighting as if they had been partners for years. Harry whimpered in pain as he was too slow in dodgin and got slashed across his neck, the large appendage proving to be a pretty good target for the enemy Grimms. The teenager, hearing his whimper, quickly grabbed an arrow from his quiver and throwing it to the hound, somehow managing to throw it both precisely and strongly enough that it buried itself into its eye, killing it immediately. Sending her a grateful look, Harry contemplated turning fully human to finish off the enemies, when all of a sudden a blindingly bright silver light assaulted his senses, and an overwhelming sense of power settled into the canyon, pushing everyone except the girl down, who started kneeling before the lights origin. Harry and the hounds meanwhile, where desperately trying to struggle to their knees, the overwhelming sense of power making all of his instincts scream at him to submit. They were also, ironically, telling him to protect this young woman with his life.

The woman looked down on the cowering canines, a snarl of disgust forming on her beautiful face. A bow formed of silver appeared on her hand, a silver arrow forming once she drew the drawstring back. The arrow flew true, piercing through the head of 3 hounds, halving the number instantly. The rest started whimpering fearfully, trying to stand up and run away. It was all for naught. Before Harry could even blink three other arrows flew through the canyon, killing the Grimms instantly, leaving nothing but golden dust that soon dispersed, blown away by the wind. Whimpering incessantly, and for some reason trying to get closer to the young woman Harry crossed his eyes, looking down the shaft to the arrowhead pointing between his eyes.

"Huh… how wierd… what are you doing here, young one?" The woman murmured, lowering her bow, which disappeared into nothingness. The pressure on harry also let out, causing him to sigh in relief, then instantly scramble up running towards the woman and trying to rub himself on her purring unabashedly. The young woman laughed lightly petting him, and allowing him to bend down and rub his head against hers, giggling all the while. The teenager meanwhile stared dumbfounded as the powerful woman giggled and petted the large leopard snake hybrid.

"M-m-my Lady! This monster could be dangerous!Thou should be more careful!" she shouted.

"Do not fret Zoe, this here is a Serpopard, one of the last alive i believe. Hecate's results from her experiments with mortals have nearly hunted them to extinction. They almost became my sacred animal in fact, yet the greek empire fell before they became prevalent throughout the lands. I wonder how this one got here" She mused, shooting a fond look at the newly named Zoe. Harry meanwhile, was desperately trying not to embarass himself too much, yet utterly failing, his animal instincts breaking through the barrier he had built around them, causing him to lay down and rub against the woman, purring all the time.

"Serpopard? Why hast I never heard of such animal my lady?" Zoe muttered amazed, now staring at him too.

"These are creations Myself and Hermes worked on for some time, yet we had to leave them be due to the Heracles fiasco, i guess we must have forgotten about them. Their venom is highly paralytic, something my stupid step brother made so that they could be used to steal things easier. Possessing the hunting instincts of a leopard and the sensing techniques of a snake, they are valuable tools for hunting, yet just a tad too independent, unlike the wolves or dogs most people are using as hunting aides. However as you can see, they possess a keen fondness and caring for those who remain pure, such as ourselves. Thanks to my influence in their creation, they instinctively protect young one must be able to sense my domain, and is reacting to it. It is probably also why it stepped in to help you and the new recruits against the hellhounds. You must have never heard of it due to how quickly they died out. Without My and Hermes's protection, Hecate's experiments on mortals, or, wizards as they so foolishly call themselves hunted them down due to the properties their body parts possess." By now she was rubbing different parts of Harry's animagus eliciting moans of pleasure that translated into deep loud purrs.

Zoe looked at him, before a contemplative look entered her face.

"My Lady Artemiss? Mayhaps we should keep him."

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Hey guys, thanks for your follows and everything, it's nice to see so many follows & favorites (at least for me) within one night. Hopefully this chapter didn't disappoint.

Review responses (Since so far I only have 3 I'll do all of them, if more arise per chapter then I'll endeavor to answer at least a few per chapter)

Birdy1210- hopefully I didn't disappoint with the animagus form. It's not exactly a panther, but its relatively close (kind of like a leopard, you can see it in the new cover page)

BrodyLopa- For the pairing I am actually thinking that (Artemis x Harry), but it'll depend on the answers and reviews I get. Also if more people like another one, I might change to that.

Bond John Bond- Thanks man :)

Anyways, thanks for everything, PsychicDetective out! :)


	3. Chapter 3

Thanks for the love and follows guys, i really appreciated it. For creativecats thanks for your review, it made me feel all warm inside I've gotten a few PMs on the Serpopard so I'll fill in a few things; It's an egyptian and mesopotamian myth that isn't very well documented. It is thought to either be a leopard/snake or a lion/snake (Here I'm using a leopard). I thought it fit quite a bit with Harry's personality, the love of flying and his desire to be independant reflected by the nature of the leopard and not the lion, whose lives revolve around their pride. HIs more slytherin nature is of course, shown through the snake part of the animal. Furthermore, it fits into the parselmouth motif that I plan on keeping. Anyways, since not much is actually known about this animal, I have decided to not make it overpowered much. I have also decided to make this Artemis x Harry, but it will take a while for it to fully develop. I already have the first few steps planned out, so look forward to that. Anyways, ejoyyy;

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For the second time in his life, Harry's eyes opened in wonder as he was introduced to another hidden world, one that was somehow, against all odds, infinitely more dangerous than the wizarding world. Upon entering the girls camp he was immediately greeted with 38 arrows, only for them to stop and hover mid air as Artemis held up her hand. And wasn't that a surprise too, that Artemis, The goddess of the hunt, and all of the other olympians were real too. Not only that, but he had inadvertently discovered the origin of magic, and what an origin that was. The fact that Hecate had blessed a bunch of mortals with magic and then decided to keep them around as an amusing experiment for herself was a bit disheartening, but rather ironically funny, as demigods viewed wizards and witches the same as the wizarding society viewed muggles, kind of like monkeys playing with sticks.

Due to the divinity within their blood, demigods were immune to the effect of wizarding magic, all wizarding magic. Even the strongest of avada kedavra was a bare tickle on a Demigods skin, fiendfyre, the most destructive of wizarding spells, would still destroy the demigods surroundings, yet only warm up the demigod targeted. Only a direct descendant of Hecate, or a wizard blessed by a god would be able to hurt a demigod with their magic, as then they would contain the spark of divinity necessary. Artemis had been explaining the new world to the newer Huntresses, with harry laying around trying to secretly listen in, his world changing with each word the ageless maiden had spoken.

By now he was thanking his lucky stars he had decided not to shift back into a human, as he had actually just seen a guy trying to flirt with a hunter, only to be turned into a bear and hunted for sport, completely brutal. On completely the opposite side of the spectrum, Harry's animagus form was absolutely beloved by the hunters, a fact that elated him. The newest members of the hunt had informed the rest of what had occurred during the battle of the canyon, earning him a large measure of respect from the hunt, a group that valued fighting prowess (If you weren't male, and thankfully animals didn't count in that regard). This also earned him considerable pats, that embarrassingly made him purr each and every single time, especially in that one spot that connected the neck to his jaw.

Soon enough he adapted to living with the hunt, using his own animagus talents, such as the tasting the air, to aid the hunt, having become accustomed to the smell most monsters released. He managed to find time for his own activities once in a while, the hunters understanding that while he helped them out he was still not actually tamed, just relatively docile (when not in fights). Artemis had also taken to looking at his antics fondly, smiling with amusement when he played with the younger girls, or when he dozed peacefully under the sun. She took great care of him, much like a someone who found a pet that had run away a long time ago.

One of his more memorable 'escapades' was when they were visiting New York, as Artemis had been summoned and practically forced into attending an emergency Olympian council meeting. He had nudged Zoe in the cheek, pointedly looking down a street, and upon receiving an exasperated sigh and a nod, trotted away, turning back into a human and apparating into the New York Gringotts branch (he had had some business there previously in his time as a hit wizard for the ICW). There, he talked to Griphook who had taken the floo to talk to him once he was notified of his presence. He was bareted quite a bit for suddenly vanishing off the face of the earth, but was then brought up in regards to the Wizarding World. Apparently, his disappearance had caused a few waves in the British wizarding society. Ginny, in an attempt to save her own reputation had said he had been distant as of late, no doubt training under the dark arts that were taught in the ICW's Attack Magyk program.

The wizarding sheeple population, using the disgusting notion that only a stronger Dark Lord could have defeated Voldemort (the fact that he was a parselmouth only seemed to add into that) had once again turned on him, the vicious barbed words of Rita, who had returned in full force once hermione wasn't around to blackmail her, had painted him black. The new Minister, Arthur Weasley, a man chosen for his staunch Light beliefs (kind of an overcompensation for the darkness that had plagued their country), a man Harry had considered to be a surrogate father to him, had believed his daughters lies, and released a search warrant for his head, posting a 10,000 galleon bounty, the same bounty that once belonged to the likes of Tom Riddle and Bellatrix Lestrange.

Hurt by the very fact that even after he had sacrificed almost everything for the wizard population they would turn on him, he turned towards a source of consolement he knew usually worked; Firewhisky. He spent practically a fortune on the alcohol, his new enhanced constitution, a side effect of the animagus transformation, had made getting drunk pretty hard. Highly intoxicated and pretty depressed, he somehow managed to transform back into his animal form, who the Hunters had named Chares, meaning kindness, and stumbled into the Hunters camp in Central Park. Artemis, once she flashed back into the clearing, looking both flustered and angry, the sky roaring with displeasure, had taken one look at him before hurriedly ushering him into their medical tent, probably thinking he had managed to work his way into a barrel of alcohol or something of the sort. She had cared for him, making sure he was up to par.

Adding the betrayal of the world that had once been his home into that his own personal hell of being afraid of getting caught and being labelled a pervert and possibly killed (some of the younger girls he had saved had taken to cuddling next to him at night), and he had started to become extremely stressed, his only outlet being the actual fights the hunt participated in, resulted in him attacking with a viciousness unseen in his previous animagus fights. This unfortunately meant his animal instincts mostly overpowered his reason during these scuffles, leaving him prone to making mistakes he knew he could have avoided. He had actually been grievously injured in the previous fight, an Empusa stabbing him through the leg with a knife. HIs mistake almost cost him his life, and his muscles had contracted due to the pain, causing him to stumble into the path of another knife slash. It had been Artemis who had saved him, jumping in the path of the strike, blocking it and slashing the monster through her midriff. She then ordered him to stand down, flashing her power when he made to stand back up. Whimpering slightly, both from the pain and the feeling of oppression, he has sat down, licking his wound, using his venom to numb the affected area. He had then been encircled by the hunters, their backs to him, protecting him from the rest of the monsters. Touched by their incredibly loyalty towards him, he tried to stand up once more, only to be pressed down by an incredibly powerful yet small hand. Looking up, he once again met the silver eyes of the goddess responsible for his immediate safety, her eyes somehow, inexplicably, radiating the feeling of nature itself. The fight had ended quickly after that, the goddess of the Hunt herself intervening, her bowie knives driving themselves mercilessly into her prey.

That very same night, he, after extracting himself from the tangle of limbs and bodies, started to take a walk through the night, tasting the ozone loaded air (the air had been especially loaded the last few days, tasting both of electricity as well as anger). He was looking for a place to transform, hoping to find a place to apparate back to the nearest gringotts (He had to sign off on one of his ongoing plans) when he tasted the bitter taste of sadness, and without a second's hesitation he bounded towards the source, soon finding himself in a small clearing. There he found Artemis hugging a crying figure, bringing the shuddering form of a young girl closer to her, singing softly in a language he assumed to be ancient greek, her melodious voice brightening the night, the nature around them responding the the crescendo of the music, deers, rabbits and squirrels appearing from the surrounding bushes, trotting and hoping their way next to her.

The young girl, who Harry now recognized as Lizzy, was one of the newest huntresses, a poor girl who was abused by her alcoholic father, who tried to tried to whore her out to a Loan Shark he owed a large debt to. Lizzy, thankfully, had run away once she heard about it, this action constituting the last straw in their horrible parental relationship. Lizzy had then run across the Hunt, learning that she herself was the daughter of athena, and thus a demigod. Apparently she had a nightmare, relieving one of their worst moments, when Lizzy, like the smart she was, realized the way she was being treated wasn't exactly morally or legally correct. She had tried to go to the police, police that, unfortunately thought she was throwing a tantrum, and took her right back to her dad, whose treatment then escalated to an almost unbearable point.

Artemis stopped singing, a ray of silver light from her chariot shining upon her, her auburn hair glimmering in the moonlight, giving her a rosy halo, and, for the first time since hearing of the gods, Harry believed, for this apparition before him was not worthy of being called anything but a goddess. She was murmuring nonsensical words into lizzy's ear softly swaying softly, the animals that had surrounded them nuzzling into her back and sides. She looked up, meeting his vibrant green eyes and smiled softly, beckoning him forward. Harry moved forward, entranced by the vision of beauty before him, his instincts screaming at him to protect this scene with everything in his power.

He laid down next to the two warm bodies, protectively curling around them, sheltering them from the slightly cold breeze. They in turn snuggled closer into him, Lizzy snoring softly into Artemis's shoulder, who by now, sheltered from the world and hidden away in her own domain, had lowered her own personal shields, the guarded face she usually wore around the new hunters (trying to show them an authority figure they could trust) melting away, leaving only a fond smile in her face. Harry curled his neck around them, instinctively resting his head next to her hand and nuzzling into it, almost forcing her to pet him. Laughing lightly, she did just that, stroking the few patches of fur he had on the crest of his head. He purred contently, eliciting another laugh from his patron.

"Ah Chares…." She murmured, her voice sounding like both the twang of an arrow leaving the drawstring and the gurgling of a brook "I can't imagine what your life must have been like. Hecate's experiments, though amusing, have been known to be especially vindictive and horrible." She then muttered a sound of surprise, as if suddenly realized a fact she had been missing. Looking at him shrewdly, she smirked a bit, before opening her mouth and almost shocking the life out of him, because against all of his expectations, she suddenly _hissed_ at him.

"_Hello there young Charess" _she hissed, laughing lightly at the shocked expression that undoubtedly appeared on his face.

"_A ssspeaker"_ Harry replied, remembering what the snakes always called him whenever he talked to them,

"_Yesss young one. I mussst thank you for the help you have been providing The Hunt. It isss most apprecciated." _she continued, stroking him all the way, smiling fondly at his purrs of gratification.

"_It isss only my duty ssspeaker. It iss my great honor to help the chosen maidensss of one of the honored creatorss"_ Harry murmured, improvising slightly according to what he believed a real Serpopard would act. It seemed to be the correct form of addressment, as she smiled contentedly, her hand not once stopping its ministrations.

They talked the night away, Artemiss asking for his history, and harry misleading her with some trouble (it was impossible to lie when talking in parseltongue, as it was a language of magic, yet he could leave openended statements, such as the fact he lived for a long time with abusive caretakers - the dursleys-, before being translated to a place he was treated as both an oddity and something to take note of - Hogwarts-, before finally escaping, where he came across the maidens, where his instincts screamed at him to protect them. She took it to mean he was in some kind of underground reserve before being saved and taken to a better one, before he finally escaped and was found by them).

It was through various instances like those that Artemis and The Hunt had somehow become some of the few rays of sunshine in the darkness had become his life. Months passed, and soon enough the tension culminated in, as was common in harry's life, an explosive fashion.

Harry had once again taken a little vacation from The Hunt. They had once again been called to New York for an emergency council meeting. Ducking in his animagus form into an alley, and dodging the outstretched arms of a cute little girl (The Mist, what he believed to be the divine version of a confounding charm, showed him to mortals as a large spotted cat). He apparated over to the Magic Avenue (American version of Diagon Alley), using the time to once again check up with Griphook over his plans. As he started talking the logistics of it, the ozone in the air suddenly became palpable even in his current form, thunderclouds gathering ominously, lightning crackling in the sky, the enchanted ceiling flickering as the charm failed for a second. Quickly finishing the meeting, Harry apparated to where he last saw the Hunt, forgetting that he wasn't in his Chares form.

He appeared 10 meters to the left of The Hunt, once again finding himself staring down the shaft of an arrow. Realizing his situation, he lifted his hands in surrender, smiling nervously.

"What do you want you male!" Zoe snarled, her aim, now that she had seen his arms raised and weaponless, now pointed at a less lethal but no less dangerous target, his family jewels.

"H-Hi there…" Harry muttered, not used to seeing the normally precious and kind girls look at him with such ferocious faces. He swore he heard little Lizzy mutter that they should sicc Chares on him.

"My name is Harry Potter and I'm here to help."

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Tadaaaa! hope you enjoy it. Please review (constructive criticism is welcome, hate reviews are not) Thank you :)


	4. Chapter 4

It feels absolutely fantastic to see how many views i have so far (~3000 right now) thanks for all of your comments, I'm glad you enjoyed the ending of the last chapter :). For those of you who may share the opinion of Matthew W. Kirkland, The Harry in this story won't be overpowered, furthermore I'll try to make the characters more similar to the books. As for Aslan333 thanks for the support, but there are 3 chapter so :'D (this is supposed to be that laughing/crying emoji) (if you give constructive criticism I'll be sure to try and ameliorate things) . to AshesGleamandGlow, thank you for your continued support, hopefully I don't dissapoint. So far; Fav= 96 foll: 140 (yayyy,, these are so much for only 10k words, so thanks, it's a great feeling to know that there are so many people reading my story)

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Noise immediately burst around the clearing, most of it scoffing. The winds howled around them, forcing the hunters to speak up above the sound fo the rain. Some of the harsher hunters started to openly laugh, their mocking cackles traveling through the cacophony. words of doubt concerning his ability to help in any way shape or form entered harry's ears, stabbing deeply into Harry's very being, especially considering that, if Harry really thought about it, it was indeed kind of true. In a battle with the gods, mythological monsters, or even demigods, most of his Attack Magyks were actually completely useless, and in an actual fight (at least in his human form) he had to rely on transfiguration or banished objects, at least for the latter two, he was only useful as bait for godly opponents. After cruelly laughing along with Phoebe, Zeo re-aimed her bow, arrow still pointed at him.

"And what could a rakefire male such as thou possibly help us with?" Zoe spat, her distaste for his gender clear within both her tone and her eyes, which were glaring at Harry, as if he were a piece of gum stuck on her sandal. Her arrow continued pointing at his privates, her fingers looking suspiciously twitchy.

Harry by now was preparing to apparate away, trying to remain discreet, knowing that if the hunters detected even a hint of aggression they'd skewer him with an ease born of thousands of years of practice. Thankfully though, this proved to be for naught, as Jasmine, one of the relatively newer girls (not in the batch of recruits he had saved, as she had joined 3 years ago and thus knew the ropes by the time he had stumbled onto their training-slash-impromptu-fight-for-their-lives. She had also been away for the last year, taking a daughter of aphrodite, a cute little girl named Lacy, who had denied the opportunity to join the hunt back to Camp Half Blood and returning only 3 days ago) pushed her way into the front lines, before mumbling something into Zeo's ear, who narrowed her eyes before reluctantly lowering the bow. Harry however, was still weary. For all their hatred of men's 'misleading and dishonourable ways', the women of The Hunt attacked when the opponent's guard was down, also using their superior numbers (most of the time) to gang up on enemies. As much as he had come to love their company in his time as Chares, he wouldn't put it past them to attack when his guard was down, especially considering he was a 'rakefire male', as Zoe had so eloquently put it (he had actually looked it up later to find out what it meant, and, considering the situation, Harry grudgingly admitted was actually pretty spot on).

Additionally, despite the fact that he had been with The Hunt for months now, Jasmine had only recently come back, and still avoided thus him, she treated his other form with caution, viewing him as an unknown variable, the purring and rubbing the other girls had deemed as adorable being met with nothing but suspicion. He had absolutely no idea what she could have said, and that fact worried him greatly.

Zoe quickly looked back at him and then turned to Jasmine, the pair delving into a fierce argument, gesturing to him every once in a while. Encouraged by the fact that the biggest threat so far (Zoe) seemed to have forgotten about him, Harry quickly analyzed the battlefield, taking in the branches laying about, looking for the largest pieces, already imagining dodging the possible attacks from the huntresses. That rather large boulder by the tree would become a rhinoceros, useful for both attack, and thus distracting them, and defence, its tough hide should be able to take a couple of hits before giving out. The branch by his foot would become a viper, while the one behind him a large spider, as, unsurprisingly, there were a lot of daughters of Athena in The Hunt. The spider would offset most of Athena's daughters, their grudge with the arachnids was legendary. He could send a freezing charm at the muddy floor below them, the ongoing rain providing sufficient water to create a slippery surface. Finally, sending a wide area freezing and banishing charm, he could create small, mostly harmless icicles, and, while banishing them into the huntresses faces, thus distracting them, he could gain enough time to apparate away.

Done considering his offensive actions, he started viewing the hunters. At this moment, there were 34 of them, 10 of which where senior members (in this case it meant having lived through at least one century). The most dangerous of though, were the two fierceless leaders.

Zoe had the quickest draw in the hunt, being able to raise her bow, aim, and fire all in under 11 second, beaten only by Artemis, who could do almost instantly. Phoebe, while not as quick, had a much stronger draw, meaning that her arrows both flew faster and hit harder. If they fired he would have to do some elemental manipulation, some of the hardest magic available, to try and tweak their aim a bit, as he wouldn't be fast enough to complete the necessary turn for apparition. Another tactic was using the ghostform spell he had found Riddle's memories, a quick spell that turned him intangible for a few seconds. The only con of this spell was the amount of power it used, a major reason it wasn't commonly seen in fights. He however, wasn't planning on fighting, but rather on talking to the hunters, or running away. Plus, he didn't know if the intangibility included celestial bronze weapons. They would be his main opponents, At least until someone prayed to Artemis for back up, if she appeared and they were still fighting he would lose, and most probably die, so that, Harry thought, was a big no-no.

The discussion between Jasmine and Zoe meanwhile, was dying down, Zoe looking accepting, if a bit resigned, while Jasmine looked about as close to ecstatic as a man hater in the presence of a man could get. She then nodded at her lieutenant, before hesitantly walking toward him, wearily looking exactly at where his wand holster was, somehow knowing its location with pinpoint accuracy. Noticing this, Harry wandlessly dispelled the disillusionment, doubting that it was even working. He wasn't sure, but he thought that, somehow, Artemis's blessing basically negated all types of disillusionment, probably because, afterall, what kind of hunter loses its prey?, Adding her own domain and the fact that the blessing definitively contained a pinch of divinity (turning the receivers into semi-immortals), his own magic would no doubt be affected. Considering Jasmine's eyes didn't widen with surprise, he considered his hypothesis to be correct. He however, still had his final ace in his pocket, one he wasn't planning on bringing out if they had just attacked him beforehand. The close proximity of Jasmine however, changed things, as now, he not only had to deal with the 3rd and 4rth best archers alive (apollo and artemis and 1rst and 2nd), but also with a relatively competent fighter, who would no doubt engage him in close combat.

His raised hands slowly began lowering, still eying the demigods weapons, the rain and cold harsh wind biting into his body. He flicked his hand, wand snapping to it, raising the tensions even further. This of course, also raised some snarls of "wizarding scum" or "Hecate's curr" from the female group, no doubt from the ones affected by one dark lord or another from before they entered The Hunt. He quickly tried to placate them, lowering his holly wand onto the floor, kicking it over to them, hopefully making them think he was harmless. It seemed to work, as the majority of them lowered their bows, reassured by the fact that he no longer had his weapon near him, and thus no longer able to use transfiguration, the one magical art that could pose a danger to them, to attack.

Harry sighed in relief, his ploy had worked. He placed his hands behind his neck while lowering to his knees, displaying a sort of submissive pose he knew would make him appear less threatening, all while slowly itching his fingers beneath the nape of his shirt, searching for the one thing all ICW hit wizards were required to carry; a second wand. He had chosen to place his second holster between his shoulder blades due to a variety of reasons, many of his peers had scoffed at the idea, stating this like the accessibility and comfort of such location were minimal, and sure, they were right. However, his second wand location had something neither the thigh, the small of the back, or his left forearm had; it was innocuous.

Placing your hands behind your head was almost always considered either a sign of relaxation, or, in especially tense situations such as these as a sign of submission. Both of these would relax the opposition, allowing for greater impact once he brought out his secondary wand. It had saved him many times before, using the times Foreign Dark lords were bragging about their accomplishments to bring it out, usually defusing the situation with a well placed spell they hadn't expected. He had handled many hostage negotiations in the same manner, coming in 'unarmed', lowering the perpetrators guard and catching them unawares. It had worked here too, the tension slowly seeping out of the atmosphere, most of the girls relaxing once they saw the male in front of them was kneeling with his hands behind his neck, seemingly harmless. Furthermore, with his new wand in hand, he had an extra advantage, as rolling between his fingers, hidden from view, was the Deathstick.

Now that he was clued into the existence of the greek divinity, the story of the three hallows somehow seemed even more truthful. Sure, he had known there were some facts to the story, it was hard not to when he was actually holding the hallows themselves, but now he had multiple gods who could actually fit the role of death. Maybe Charon, the ferryman of souls? Or Thanatos, the greek god god of peaceful death? This one wasn't a major possibility, as the domain of peaceful death didn't fit with the deathstick. Finally, there was Hades, the god of the Underworld, and a major player in concern to death.

Harry personally believed that the Death god in this case was Charon, as he was a relatively minor deity, thus able to interact with Hecate's experiments (as the gods named the wizards) without showing his disdain for both their superiority-complex as well their arrogance. Furthermore, according to a complaint from Artemis he had overheard, the wait to cross the Styx was incredible, meaning that the stone would be able to temporarily bring one of those waiting souls. As for the deathstick and the invisibility cloak, well, the cloak could just be a normal invisibility cloak with some of his power within, while the deathstick could be a dashed dream, apparently it was unfulfilled hopes and dreams that dotted the waters of the styx, and owning powerful wand was a major hope for most wizards and , hopefully, the small amounts of divinity within would prove to be enough to create an effective defense against the celestial bronze tipped arrowheads.

Jasmine meanwhile, had taken her eyes off his holster and was now looking at his face, and, for the briefest moment, a small flash of recognition passed, leaving Harry to wonder what it was about. Maybe she had recognized his human form? Immediately, panic assaulted his mind, sweat dripping down his scalp, the tingling of fear grabbing his very core. Harry quickly thought over his next course of action. Jasmine coming close had disrupted his plans. He'd have to banish her before moving on, but that would undoubtedly double the intensity of The Hunt's attacks, their anger incensed by his assault on one of their own.

His animal instincts surged, filling him with an intense disgust at even the thought of harming one of them, his human mind immediately agreeing. No, he'd enter ghost form and apparate to the Gringotts branch, hide with the goblins. They were vindictive greedy little buggers, so they most probably worked for or under Hades, who didn't have the best relationship with the rest of the olympian council, so maybe they'd protect him? His ongoing project with them was almost complete, and Artemis couldn't hunt humans without permission from Zeus, she only had free reign when concerning monsters and wild animals. With the ongoing dispute in the council (Harry didn't know exactly what was going on but judging from the tangible scent of ozone and the practical hurricane buffeting against new york he deduced it must be big) and due to the sheer value Artemis had as both an attack force and tracker, she would be needed somewhere else, meaning Zeus would deny her the opportunity to hunt for him. Yes, he'd be safe. That's what he would do.

All those thoughts however, flew out of his mind once Jasmine threw her arms around him hugging him fiercely, eliciting strangled gasps from both himself and the rest of the hunters.

"Thank you Chares" She muttered, separating before continuing "My step-sister was within the group you saved. I'm a daughter of Hecate, and we're born ingrained with an intrinsic knowledge of the wizarding community. I knew you were an animagus, but after hearing you saved the young recruits, I against informing the rest of my family, decided to wait and see what you would do. It takes a lot of courage to apparate here in your human form just because you thought we were in danger. For that, I thank you on behalf of the rest of The Hunt. Who would have thought the great Harry Potter, defeater of Lord Voldemort and ICW HIi-Wizard extraordinaire would be using his animagus form to spy on us young teenagers? What would the world think young man? " she was smirking now, her mock scolding at the end of her little speech causing amusement to dance in her eyes.

Harry's mouth dropped open in shock, eyes briefly glazing over as he realized the implications of her statements. When she had called his Chares, Harry's heart had literally stopped, thinking that she would have stabbed him right there, only to start beating again with the ferocity of a 2 ton tank once she explained her reasoning for not telling Artemis or the rest of the Hunt. It still hammered on, though now there was a small smile adorning his face too. It seems that amidst a group of extreme man haters, he had found a friend, one that he seemed to be indebted to. He felt a brief flash of affection, before it was once again drowned in panic, the silver flash signifying the entrance of Artemis, signifying the sealing of his fate.

Not only was he in close proximity to a woman of the Hunt, but he was also part of Hecate's Experiments, a group mostly known for their deplorable ways (With least one dark lord a century, it was hard not to be known as a group of people prone to commiting inexcusable actions). His fate as a pincushion was now practically guaranteed, Artemis's apoplectic face entering his field of vision, she raised her hand, snarling about filthy males desecrating her hunters just as some idiot stole the master-bolt. Harry tried to apparate away, only to slam down painfully on the ground, his very molecules screaming painfully from the rebound. If Artemis was mad before, it was nothing compared to now, having witnessed his attempt to escape, recognizing him as a wizard after his failed apparition. He saw a brief flash of light and the sound of someone scream "NO MILADY", before he was hit. He felt his body crumple like paper, his nerves screaming, the pain much worse than Voldemorts cruciatus. His feet left the pavement below, the winds and rain buffeting the ragdoll that had become his body, each little raindrop felt like a burning cold icicle, stabbing into his very being, into his very soul.

The world went black.

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I'vewritten and re-written this story about 3 times now and I'm still not completely happy with it, but I'm posting it now because it'd otherwise completely leave my mind and I'd probably forget about it. I have an exam this wednesday i need to study for (wish me luck!). I've decided to, once again, leave it in a bit of a cliffhanger (jejeje) so look forward to the next issue. Thank you for your continued support.


	5. Chapter 5

His eyes opened slowly, and the small of grass wafted into his nose, awakening him completely. He stood up looking around in confusion, what was he doing here? Who were these people? Hurriedly, he examined them closer, they'd either be predators, or pray, and, looking at the sharp things they held, they were undoubtedly predators, ones he couldn't handle. He turned around, and ran away with all of his strength, they'd kill him, they would definitely kill him. He could feel it in his bones, those humans would definitely kill him. They shouted words at him, running after him, their menacing presence looming after him, like the shadow of death about to release his hounds. There was this one particular girl, who no matter how much he dodged , bobbed and weaved through the under-bush always seemed to her eyes trained on him, her piercing silver eyes following his every move.

He quickly ducked into a hole, hoping that the girls would leave him alone, only to cower even further once he saw a face pop up, a face that spoke of power. He quickly cowered as the woman scowled, pointing an arrow his way, only to stop as another person yelled something at her, he quickly tried to get away while she was distracted, using the opening to scurry between her and another girl, only to stop as he was surrounded by the rest of the group. He looked around, desperately watching his surroundings for something that could provide an opening, so he could escape. He needed to escape. One of the hunters turned to the other, and they seemingly seemed to argue between each other, and he once again used the small opening, this time running into the trees, disappearing into the nature. He continued running, leaping over falling branches, the bushes stinging as their thorns dug into his sides, causing him to wince in pain each time. He faltered, his leg falling into a hole he hadn't seen, but he couldn't stop, or they'd get him.

Seeing a large tree, he quickly climbed it, using the connecting branches to continue his escape, that way he hopefully wouldn't leave tracks for the hunters to follow. The birds flew away once he saw them, that wasn't good, they'd give him away. He needed to get out of this place, they'd no doubt find him. He continued running, now looking for a hole of some sort to burrow and hide in, hopefully they would run past it, thinking he had continued on. His muscles by now were screaming in agony, his bones rattling with every jarring impact of his legs on the branches. He looked back, hoping he wouldn't see the inevitable arrow that would end his life. He was lucky, the hunters seemed to have been taken by surprise at his successful escape, leaving him a small margin of time before they collected their thoughts and chased after him.

He slowed down a bit, almost moaning in delight at the feeling of pure relief his harried muscles sent him. He looked around and once he failed to recognize the area he was in, continued going in the direction he had escaped, the sound of his soft footfalls disappearing into surrounding flora. He trudged forward, now looking for a place to spend the night, as the sun was hanging low above the horizon, it's last rays shining through the foliage, illuminating little. Fate seemed to smile upon him, as one of those rays somehow managed to shine upon a burrow beneath a particularly large tree. He could spend the night there, sheltered from the rain and lightning.

His instincts screamed at him to be careful, reminding him of his previous experience with the hunters, telling him this place wasn't safe. Thus, he softly padded forward, nose twitching as he tried to place the various smells in the area, maybe a dangerous animal had marked this territory as his? That wouldn't do, he was so tired he wouldn't be able to fight back. Failing to recognize any of the scents in the area, he lowered his guard, using his extremities to enlarge the hole enough to be able to fit through. He shimmied in, the earth around him providing him with a cocoon of warmth, his eyes drooping involuntarily as he reviewed the what had happened in the last hours. Waking up to the hunters, trying to escape, managing to escape, thankfully, saving his hide. He'd have to be more careful in the future.

The next morning his eyes opened up slowly, taking in everything around him. His various cuts and bruises from yesterday's escape were still hurting, only now they were dirty from the dirt he had slept in, he'd take care of those later, right now hunger was his main concern, the sharp pangs were actually what woke him. Shifting a bit, he managed to work his way out of the burrow, making sure to mark the tree for future reference, it was a nice hideout, one that could become permanent with a bit of work. He looked around, staring into the trees, maybe they would have some pinecones or nuts? He started looking around, slowly padding his way out of the immediate vicinity, looking for food.

He searched high and low for fruits and nuts, but what he found was much worse, he found the hunters, he had been rummaging around a bush when he tripped, stumbling into a clearing, one that just so happened to be used by the hunters as a camp. They all immediately looked up, alerted by the sounds he had made. Too stunned to move, he was immediately surrounded, rough calloused hands grabbing him and bringing him to another person. He struggled to get away, he really did, his limbs flailing wildly, hitting the hunters on different occasions, eliciting gasps and grunts of pain from the teenagers. The leader looked at him contemptuously, once again pointing him with her finger. Harry struggled even harder, scared of what that could mean, was she going to kill him? Order someone else to do it? Before he could his mind could concoct even more probable scenarios, the woman spoke, her voice muffled and distorted to his ears. The hands unceremoniously dropped him, and he quickly surged forward, trying to use one of the hunters as a springboard so as to jump over them. He was sweating profusely now, sweat dripping into his eyes, blurring the world around him. The wounds he had neglected to treat were stinging him, the sharp pains reminding him he was alive, reminding him what he was fighting for. His muscles tensed, ready to contract and put his plan in motion, only for a bright flash to fill the clearing, a silver gray of light originating from the woman's finger striking him in the middle of the chest.

Harry's eyes snapped open, his mouth opening in a desperate attempt to take deep bulging breaths. His mind spun, catching up to everything that had happened. He had become a squirrel. Not just physically, but rather Artemis had pointed her finger at him, and with just a smidge of godly power from her, he had genuinely believed he was a squirrel, with squirrel instincts and squirrel fears. He had forgotten everything about magic, about hogwarts and his parents and his ex-friends. He had forgotten about Zoe and the poor little recruits who would come in at night and snuggle with him if they had nightmares about the hellhounds, he had forgotten absolutely everything, becoming a slave to instincts that weren't his.

He gasped even more, legs and eyes trembling in fear once he raised his head to behold the goddess before him. He had known she was powerful, he had actually seen her take down a battalion of lamia's by herself, her bow spitting arrows at a rate that would put guns to shame, yet even so, he had never thought that with just a wave of her hand, she could have erased his entire self of being, leaving him an ordinary squirrel. The power she held was absolutely terrifying, even more so than wands. While wizards could do that too, it was possible to fight through an obliviate (they had a lot of problems do to muggles remembering acts of magic they had seen. It was that way in fact that comic books had originated, as muggles remembered things they weren't supposed to see. Stan Lee was the cousin of a muggleborn in america, who had seen acts of magic and been obliviated, his mind fought through it, turning those into visions he could comprehend, mutants and people with superpowers, hence the origins of Marvel). Artemis however, would have no problems with that, her godly power completely suppressing the minds of the mortals it was used upon, and only someone of her level would be able to rescind it, of which 12 beings, to his knowledge, currently existed. None of which would actively go against her just for him.

He struggled to his knees, eying the goddess before him warily, she had turned him into an animal before, she might due so again. Artemis in turn, looked at him, her eyes openly displaying amusement at his consternation. Jasmine meanwhile, had slowly started walking forward, her eyes softening a bit as she eyes his kneeling form. She offered him her hand, trying to make him stand up, only to blanch and step back when Artemis coughed, the sound reverberating through the clearing. Jasmine hurried back to her space in line, the hunters slowly coming into formation behind their patron goddess.

Artemis stepped forward, walking around the kneeling Harry, her eyes roaming, settling on looking at him straight in the eye. She scoffed a bit, and harry, despite the life threatening situation he was in, marvelled at how even her scoffing sounded beautiful, her melodious voice making the grunt sound like it belonged in one of Mozart's symphonies.

"According to little Jasmine here you are Harry Potter yes? The mortal who stopped that vile male Voldemort?" She questioned, her eyebrow raising along with the question. Stumped a bit with the unexpected inquiry, harry fumbled for an answer, stammering out a yes.

"I must thank you, his followers were some of the most disgusting males to ever walk the earth. If it weren't for the ancient laws i would have destroyed the ground they walked on for daring to defile as much such innocence as they did. No doubt they are suffering in the fields of punishment for their actions. But tell me something mortal, mayhaps you know who I am?"

Her scathing voice smoothed a bit at the end, though it still contained a hard edge of steal that sent shivers of fear down his spine. In his animal form he hadn't noticed, but the sheer presence of Artemis was making him sweat. He had to actually force himself not to grovel at her feet, and now, as he kneeled before her, he wondered at the audacity men like orion must have had to not only disrespect the goddess, but actually think themselves at her level, no, she was much more powerful than any mortal had a chance of being.

"Y-yes my lady Artemis, thank you for your graciousness my lady" He stuttered, making sure to thank her for her own gratitude, it was unheard of for a man-hating goddess such as herself to thank one. With this thought feelings of both pride and joy blooming across him, an involuntary, yet no less real, smile gracing his face.

"Ahh, how wonderfully odd, one of hecate's experiments knowing of our godly world. It seems however, that you at least you know your place. Now tell me, why were you amongst my henters?" At this her eyes darkened, transmitting visions of bears mauling humans, of space-shuttles malfunctioning and exploding, vaporizing the bodies of those within, all due to their audacity of trying to step on one of the physical manifestations of her domain. Harry shivered, the visiones assaulting his very senses, bypassing all of his occlumency barriers, managing to make him feel the bears claws ripping him to shreds, the suffocating realm of space, as well as the hopelessness of the astronauts as they plummeted to their deaths, the scorching heat of the explosions burning his very soul.

Harry gasped, trying with all of his might to resist the visions present within her eyes, only to come out powerless against the might of the olympian before him. She seemed to notice his inability to move, much less speak, due to the visions, and looked away, but not before a smirk dotted her teenage face. Harry once again found himself taking deep gulping breaths, trying with all of his might to stabilize his beating heart. He quickly gathered his thoughts, hoping she wouldn't read them, if she found out he was the seropard she'd definitely kill him, something he didn't want happening any time soon. He tried to think of a way out of this dangerous situation, and soon came up with a plan, one that would hopefully leave her convinced he intended to do good.

"It was the Serpopard My Lady" He mumbled, hoping that the fact that he knew about the animal that had been with them for a while would add some credence to his tale.

"How would he have told you, you male" She spat, obviously believing him to be lying "Chares can not speak" Harry quickly sent a prayer to hestia, the one olympian he knew would most likely be at his side in this situation (he now viewed The hunt as a pseudo-family, and as the goddess of that domain, she would hate for him to fight with them)

"_I ssspeak the noble tongue my lady" _Harry hissed, eliciting a small amount of gasps from the hunt as they viewed the male hiss much like they had seen Chares and Artemis hiss at one another.

"_Ahh, how sstrange, a ssspeaker. Ssso long ssincee I lasst ssaw one. Maybe Medussa? Anywaysss, thiss makess it sso much easssier" _She continued, the amusement once again entered her eyes. Harry sighed thankfully, his plan had worked. It wasn't possible for a mortal to lie in parseltongue, as it was a language for animals and created by Artemiss in conjunction to Hecate, it was an embodied form of magic, and thus impossible to lie with, one couldn't lie to magic. Now, as long as Artemis didn't explicitly ask him if he was Chares, then he'd be able to talk his way out of this scenario.

"_My Lady, i promisss i meant no harm to your hunterss, once i thought they may be in trouble, i came asss quickly ass posssible" _

Artemiss eyed the mortal before her curiously, she could detect no hidden intent from him, only a subservience and desire to please she found uncommon within the male populace. He wasn't lying either, though it was truly a surprise he could speak the language of snakes, he must have been exceptionally gifted for hecate to allow him to do so, maybe on of her favoured? She'd have to stop by and ask her, it wouldn't be good for her to kill one of Hecate's wards, though thankfully, she had no inclination to do so as of now, the male before her had managed to not anger her, quite the feat for someone of his gender.

"_Yesss, i can sssee that. Very well Harry Potter, as thankss for avenging the poor girlsss whosse innocence was befouled by those filthy maless, i shall let you assk onee ssmall blessing, and not neuter you were you ssstandd" _the amusement danced in her eyes as she watched harry's face drain of blood, he was probably unaware that she had planned on doing so, he wouldn't have been the first male she neutered as punishment for daring to look at her eyes when speaking to her, acting as if they were equals. She wouldn't grant the blessing if it was too much, but she was curious to see what the male before her would choose. A gasp arose from the rest of the hunters standing behind their patron, as Jasmine (being the daughter of hecate she too could speak parseltongue) finished translating the conversation for them, and quite a few glares from the more extreme hunters were aimed his way. If glares could kill he would undoubtedly be facing the three ghost judges by now.

Harry meanwhile, was having a massive internal war inside of himself. First of all, he was completely terrified, he had been so close to losing an essential part of himself, and he hadn't even noticed it. On the other hand, he was elated, a blessing from artemis would be incredibly beneficial in not just his day to day human life, but also in helping the hunt in his Chares form, something he planned on continuing to do. He couldn't ask for her to bless his magic, that was an extremely large favour, as not only would it automatically make him the most powerful wizard alive (his spells, due to the divinity within them, would practically bypass all forms of shielding (maybe that was why one couldn't block the three unforgivables? The some of the gods may have blessed these particular curses, Hades for the AK, Algea, goddess of pain, for the curicatus, and Psyche, goddess of the mind. The divinity present within those shields would allow them to bypass any magical one). It was just too big of a blessing, and thus didn't fall within the parameters, plus, Artemis's opinion of him would probably fall, something he definitely didn't want happening.

No, he had to ask for something that would not only help him, but also earn him a small amount of respect from the goddess? What were her domains? The hunt, the moon, and chastity. Possible blessings related to the moon; see at night (he could already do that pretty well as Chares, and some of that passed onto his human form, meaning that while it was a boon on his abilities, it was minimal and thus not what he would ask. Chastity; he couldn't really think of anything that wouldn't either label him a creep, get him killed on the spot, or be useful in any scenario, thus, that was out too. No, it would be the hunt, but what? He already had heightened senses as a Serpopard, he could taste the air for tracking, his claws and teeth were sharp and deadly, his paralytic venom deadly useful, the basilisk venom within his blood enhancing it to even loftier heights, allowing him to bring down mythical creatures such as hellhounds, something that shouldn't have been possible for a non-magical animal such as a Serpopard. No, those were efficient enough as is, what was he currently bad at? What could he improve? Stealth. Yes, his large form as a serpopard was actually a huge downsize, something he would have to improve, and this blessing could fix that, perfect.

"_My lady, I am a hit wizzardd" _Harry hissed, trying to frame the blessing so it wasn't such a big request _"As such I need to hunt down evil wizzardsss ssuch ass Voldemort. For my blesssing I would love to be ablee to track my enemiesss sssilently" _Harry concluded, and to his everlasting relief, he saw a small glimmer of approval within the goddesses silver eyes. He had been afraid it would be too much.

Artemis was pleased at the mortals request. Not only was it a rather small boon, the male before her wasn't that large, adn as one of those hit wizards, he can't be clumsy, thus, the ability to track his enemies silently wouldn't be too much of a boon for him, it was still perfectly within her capabilities, yet still very useful. It was rather thought out too if the time he had been quiet was any indication. She approved, giving a small nod.

A silver light enveloped Harry, seeping into his flesh, leaving him gasping at the feeling, it felt like someone had poured honey all over him, the goopy feeling leaving him closing and opening his hands into fists, trying to see if his fingers would stick to his palms as the feeling seemed to suggest they would. They didn't.

With that complete, Artemis seemed to tire with his presence, telling him to leave before she went back on her promise and actually neutered him, saving the world from another perverted male (at least according to her). Thus, with that, Harry quickly apparated out of the clearing, aiming one last look of gratitude towards Jasmine. She had saved his life twice within the last two days, he would be sure to somehow thank her properly with his Chares form. He quickly turned around once more, having found himself in the middle of the wizarding district.

The rain had finally stopped pouring sometime during his conversation in the clearing, and the wizards and witches seemed to be taking full advantage of the small time lapse between rains (the sky was still incredibly cloudy and gloomy, the air so humid it seemed clothes would become wet just from being outside, it would most likely rain again soon), every one of them bustling between shops, the kids jumping in puddles and earning themselves scolds from their parents for splashing water on innocent bystanders. Harry quickly entered a bakery, buying some delicious buttery cakes he had tried the last time he was here, placing them all within a large bag. He quickly apparated away once he paid, and as soon as he found himself in an abandoned dingy alley, he transformed into his Chares form, grabbing the handle of the bag with his mouth, taking care that his razor sharp fangs did not cut into the bag. The smell and the taste of the air surrounding the bag were almost too much, causing him to involuntarily salivate, his taste buds imagining the feast within. But, he held himself back, fighting against the instincts of the Serpopard, telling himself that no matter how hungry he was, he still had to properly thank Jasmine, and he still hadn't met a girl alive that could say no to sweets or baked goods.

Chares bounded into the park, and quickly rubbed himself against the sentries of the Hunts Camp, making sure they knew he was there, wouldn't do to get himself shot now would he? They laughed a bit at his playfulness, before giving the signal for his entrance, a sharp whistle and three hoots. He waited for a second before continuing, eyeing his surroundings as carefully as he always did when entering the camp, as the first time he had done so a girl had forgotten about their new mascot and shot him. Once he was within sight, he quickly ran over to jasmine, dropping the bag of assorted baked and sweet goods before her, rubbing himself against her and purring.

Zoe wandered over, looked at the bag and picked up one cupcake, nibbling on the frosting with a contented sigh. She started telling him about what had happened, of a human male named Harry who appeared before their camp, telling them he would help, only to be turned into a squirrel and run away as soon as Artemis came. Jasmine exchanged glances with him, stiffling a chuckle at the irony of Zoe telling him the story, earning herself a confused glance from Zoe, who continued with the story, now rubbing his ears. He was now a puddle of fur and muscles on the ground, enjoying the sensation immensely.

He was safe, he was home.

* * *

It's incredible to see how much you all enjoy my story, as I have received PMs and reviews telling me to continue So thank you all for the support. I'm sorry it took a bit longer than expected, I had a bunch of quizzes this week, an engineering degree is no joke. I hope this chapter meets your standards. I hope you enjoyed the ending, I thought it was a bit poetic and enjoyed writing that final sentence, kind of rounds up the introduction Arc. Soon we come across Percy jackson and the lightning thief if you couldn't deduce from all of the rain and Olympian conferences. I already have an idea of the direction this story will take in relation to the first PJ book, but please be sure to PM or review if you have ideas too, as i appreciate them. For those waiting to see the Harry = Chares reaction, well, you'll just have to wait a bit more ;). I did include a Neuter joke as a 'Guest' reviewed, so you have him to thank for that. But well, hope you enjoyed it. Please be sure to fav/follow or Review with constructive criticism.


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